I built a house around a house [using chain-link fence, corrugated metal, asphalt, and other common building materials]. It was the first completely free piece I did. I did it exactly the way I wanted. My client was me and my wife, and my wife egged me on. … I talked about the asphalt floor, and I was going to chicken out, and she said, “Come on, I want to see that.” — Los Angeles Review of Books
A recently published Los Angeles Review of Books interview conducted by Steven Jay Fogel and Mark Bruce Rosin with Frank Gehry in 1991 highlights a few fascinating tidbits of the architect's early life and his career pre-Bilbao.
In the wide-ranging interview, Gehry discusses, among other topics, his thoughts on success, his non-linear path to architecture, and his thinking on architecture as his career was just about to take off.
My grandmother had a big effect on me. She had run a foundry in Poland when she was a young girl, and she was very hands-on. She would take me to the woodshops where she’d pick up scraps for the wood stove she cooked on. She would bring home all the scraps, and we would play on the floor. She would make cities with me.
It was when I was doing Santa Monica Place that I built my house. I had a big office, and I was successful in a business sense, but in an artistic sense, I wasn’t. The client from Santa Monica Place came to my house for dinner — he’s a guy I’m still friends with — and he said to me, “If you like this,” pointing to the house, “You don’t like that,” pointing to photos of Santa Monica Place. ... I was terrified when that guy sitting in my house said what he did. I thought, “Oh my God, here’s a company that 50 percent of my office is involved in with their work.” I remember saying, “You’re right, you’re right” — and so they stopped giving me work. It was over.
Yes, I’m a worrier. If I solve one problem, I find something else to worry about 30 seconds later. I worry about health and my kids and my wife and my mother. I worry about the world and the greenhouse effect …
Check out the entire interview for more of Gehry's insights.
6 Comments
Gehry's interviews are well worth reading. His life story is a refreshing counterpoint to the unfortunate and unhealthy notion that you need money and a well-connected background to get ahead as a design-focused architect.
The exception proves the rule.
Good interview, like his normally are. Midlander, to your point, I don’t think Gehry would be nearly as successful now as he was in those days. The amount of competition between architects has increased exponentially, and the number of clients that support architects, as they did with Gehry has dropped significantly too.
I wonder about that too. Certainly I think someone like myself trying to get oriented and start doing interesting work is going to need to find a different way - but I think the essential fact is that he didn't find some formula for opening a successful design firm. He stumbled around between working in an established business-oriented office and doing side projects that became a viable firm before repositioning himself. It was messy and uncertain. That probably is still possible somewhere.
‘right place at the right time’ - luck plays a huge part in everything.
The Santa Monica Place was actually a really nice shopping mall. Gehry's planning there was very clear and comprehensible. I liked that you always knew where you were in that building, unlike many shopping malls, where it seems that the planners are trying to disorient you.
I was kind of sad to see it go.
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